ERIC ED434811: Philosophy of Chemistry: An Emerging Field with Implications for Chemistry Education.

by: ERIC

Publication date: 1999-09

Topics: ERIC Archive, Chemistry, Educational Change, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Philosophy, Science Curriculum, Science Education, Science Education History, Science History, Scientific Principles, Secondary Education, Teaching Methods, Erduran, Sibel

Collection: ericarchive; additional_collections

Language: English

Traditional applications of history and philosophy of science in chemistry education have concentrated on the teaching and learning of "history of chemistry". This paper considers the recent emergence of "philosophy of chemistry" as a distinct field and explores the implications of philosophy of chemistry for chemistry education in the context of teaching and learning chemical models. This paper calls for preventing the mutually exclusive development of chemistry education and philosophy of chemistry, and argues that research in chemistry education should strive to learn from the mistakes that resulted when early developments in science education were made separate from advances in philosophy of science. Contains 54 references. (Author/WRM)